Fred Osmon opens his new book, Taking Care of Business, outside of the William Street Cafe in Chatham Aug. 22, 2019. The book compiles homicides in Chatham-Kent dating back to the 1850s. (Tom Morrison/Postmedia Network)

A Chatham man has compiled more than 100 homicides in Chatham-Kent since the 1850s into a new book using articles from various local newspapers.

Fred Osmon just released Taking Care of Business: A Record of Homicides and Incidents in Chatham ‘N Kent Over 100 Years.

“I know it’s not something a lot of other writers wanted to touch, but we recorded a history of baseball. We recorded a history of all of our heroes in Chatham and that kind of thing, but we need to record (these) folks so that these victims are never forgotten,” Osmon said.

He said he was surprised how many of these incidents he found, using archives at the Chatham-Kent Public Library for newspapers such as The Chatham Daily Planet, The Chatham Daily News and Chatham-Kent This Week.

“I didn’t think there was that many, this being a nice, quiet community and a great place to live. I don’t want anybody to think it’s a bad place to live with these homicides,” he said.

The book also features a brief history on the police services for Chatham and Chatham-Kent, a list of “notorious criminals” in Canada and the U.S., and information about capital punishment in Canada.

One convicted murderer in Chatham, Harold Arthur Ortt, was scheduled to be hanged two months after the 1968 cabinet of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment.

Osmon also included a page about four police officers who were murdered in Chatham-Kent.

“A lot of people are maybe familiar with one or two, but I don’t think they’re familiar with all four,” he said.

Another page features a list of unsolved murders in Chatham-Kent.

Osmon said he knew some of the people involved in these incidents, or their family members, and others in the community have probably been affected as well.

The book concludes with a death of a woman in 2016 and the trial of her husband, who was found not criminally responsible.

Branches of the Chatham-Kent Public Library will have the book, said Osmon, or people can buy it from him for $40. He can be reached at osmonre39@gmail.com.